Who among us has not received unwanted “junk mail” for goods and services in which we have absolutely no interest. The average amount of junk mail received by consumers is 40 pounds per year. Aside from being environmentally unsound given the heavy metals in printing ink, it is a constant annoyance which many consumers would like to avoid. Junk mail marketing and telemarketing are also increasingly inefficient ways to reach consumers and to induce them to spend money on products or services. Currently, the return rate on such blind offers is about 1%. If the right consumers could be contacted with the right offers, the return rate for such mailing would dramatically increase and the amount of junk mail being indiscriminately sent to consumers would dramatically decrease. Thus both economic and environmental benefits would be achieved.
Superimposed on the wants and need of the consumer are the needs of the merchants that offer goods and services to the consumer. A merchant selling luxury cars has no desire to have as a client a consumer who lacks the ability to pay for the luxury car. If the car is to be financed, the car dealer loses if the consumer is rejected for a bank loan due to poor credit history. Thus it is important to the purveyor of goods and services that the right offer goes to the right consumer in order to maximize the return on such mailings.
Targeted marketing has been the subject of invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,560, issued to Deaton et al. discloses a system and method for performing targeted marketing of retail customers. The invention is principally a point-of-sale system that relies on a database that matches a customer with a record of past purchases. The customer matching can be in the form of the MICR coding on a check, or some other form of customer identification number (a check cashing card number for example). The customer database contains purchase amounts and dates, and there is an implication that it could include brand name, volume and cost information. The invention specifically claims a system and method to target the customer with incentives to return to the point-of-sale location and purchase items that they have infrequently purchased in the past.
Though the concept of developing a customer database and targeting the customer based on purchases is present, this invention represents a single point-of-sale system and method that is not apparently networked with multiple points-of-sale beyond the individual store or store chain. Further there are no rewards for customer loyalty, no specific incentive system, delivered at the point-of-sale, or mailed; and there is no apparent learning cycle or substantial database analysis to pro-actively identify trends of individual consumers and target them with specific content package rewards to reinforce loyalty. Additionally this invention is controlled by the point-of-sale retailer and not by a neutral party that can evaluate the totality of a consumer's spending habits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,812 issued to Deaton et al. discloses a system and method for performing targeted marketing of retail customers. The disclosure of this '812 patent is substantially the same as the disclosure in '560. The incentives of '812 are “directed toward only the class of customers who meet said predetermined shopping history criteria, . . . contingent upon a customer meeting a predetermined future shopping criteria.”
Again this invention deals with a single point-of-sale system and method that is not networked with multiple points-of-sale beyond the individual store or store chain. Further the database of '812 tracks customer transactions limited to dollars spent and date of transaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,763 issued to Atcheson et al. discloses a system and method for determining possible undisclosed preferences of a customer. For example, the invention assumes that if two people have similar tastes in music, it is likely that the music preferences of one will be desired by the other. The invention discloses a system to match and weight a first customer's disclosed preferences with preferences of other customers to identify undisclosed preferences of the first customer. This invention does not disclose any form of tailored reward or incentive based on customer loyalty, is controlled by the point-of-sale retailer and is oriented to the music and entertainment industry.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,306 issued to Stein et al. discloses a system and method for providing coupons that are targeted to individual customers with the coupons containing promotional material and recommendations. The invention discloses maintaining a consumption history related to a customer, and explicitly targets particular customers. An objective is to predict the likely purchase for the consumer. The customer database that is disclosed includes birthday, address, children and past products consumed. The promotional material could include discount coupons and announcements. The network disclosed is limited to a single industry and most importantly, the reward system is controlled by the point-of-sale retailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,218 issued to De Lapa et al. discloses a system and method for generating and redeeming discount coupons for a selected consumer. The invention further discloses selecting future coupons for the selected consumer based on the coupons previously redeemed by the consumer. The invention discloses a form of micro marketing tailored messages to a particular consumer based upon unique characteristics of that consumer. Shopping habits are one of those unique characteristics. The invention discloses matching consumer purchases with consumer identification information like income and demographics. The invention also discloses the consumer identification information being voluntarily provided.
Though an object of the invention is to induce the consumer to shop at the retailer participating in the system and increase the total purchases from that retailer, the invention also discloses providing higher coupon values to non-consumers than those provided to regular consumers. This process does not necessarily encourage the loyalty of existing customers. The invention further discloses a system that is organized and controlled by a particular retail establishment and is intended to increase the pool of customers who regularly use that particular store. There is no disclosure of cooperative marketing across product boundaries.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,019 issued to Schultz et al. discloses a system and method for providing manufacturer purchase rewards through automatic tracking of consumer purchases. This allows the manufacturer to track fulfillment and redemption of those purchasing incentives. An object of the invention is to automatically credit a consumer's purchase toward a purchase reward without use of the mail. Another object of the invention is reward of specific purchase behavior and increasing customer brand loyalty. There is no disclosure of a method to actively target consumers beyond redemption of their rewards. Further the invention relates to automated scanning of bar codes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,113 issued to Dinerstein discloses a system and method for correlating product purchases and individual consumer data. The invention tracks purchases through automated scanning, like the UPC code, and identifies individual consumers through unique codes. Product information is related to individual consumer data to provide marketing reports to manufacturers, thereby improving market knowledge of the manufacturer and reducing cost to the retailer through gathering and relating the information. No disclosure of an incentive or reward system that will increase individual consumer loyalty through reward of their individual activities. Further, the invention is heavily dependant on the process of check cashing to correlate consumer information with product information.
In summary these references are predominantly point-of-sale methods that are heavily dependant on bar code scanning and many require check payment. They are controlled by the point-of-sale retailers rather than a neutral non-retailer or database provider/operator, and few provide for merchandising from numerous merchants.
What is needed to more effectively target consumers for specific marketing is a way to determine the spending profile of consumers for a variety of merchandise. Further, a system that allows consumers to receive advertisements for goods and services from a variety of merchants and service providers without regard to where prior purchases were made will more effectively suit the needs of consumers to receive the best deal on desired goods and services. Finally, in order to maximize the consumer response to offers, the best offer, geared to an individual consumer and presented over a channel of established communications with the consumer should be presented.